Newark council slams Mayor Booker for 'savage' proposed budget cuts

NEWARK — Newark council President Donald Payne Jr. and four of his colleagues accused Mayor Cory Booker today of political posturing and thrusting the governing body into the role of bad guy when he challenged them to come up with their own plan to close a $70 million budget gap.

The dramatic push-back came just 24 hours after Booker announced a series of "savage" budget cuts, including a four-day workweek for 1,450 non-uniformed city employees, the closing of city pools, even cutbacks on toilet paper and holiday decorations — then proceeded to prod the council to come up with its own budget blueprint.

"It appears the mayor is a Pontius Pilate. In other words, his hands are clean. The blood of the residents of Newark will be on our heads," Councilwoman-at-large Mildred Crump said during a press conference the five council members held at City Hall.

"We advise and consent on the budget. It’s the mayor’s job," Payne said. "Press conference after press conference, he says the council is not doing its job."

On Wednesday, Booker said the council’s decision to defer action on the creation of a municipal utilities authority — a linchpin of his budget — left him with a $70 million deficit he had to start filling without resorting to draconian tax increases that could cripple the city’s fragile economic revival.

It was a message he reiterated today, three weeks after he proposed a $600 million budget that already included the prospect of up to 350 police and firefighter layoffs.

"The council’s job is to pass the budget. It’s a fundamental part of their responsibilities," Booker said. "They took this and said, ‘No.’ We were depending on that revenue, and now so late in the year, it’s hard to make up. ... We are in crisis mode. We all need to come together."

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerMildred C. Crump, Council Member At-Large, left, listens, as Ras J. Baraka, South Ward Councilman, second from left, speaks during the news conference.

But during the press conference, Darrin Sharif, the Central Ward councilman, said Booker was using "fear tactics." The council, Sharif said, had a "very serious, viable deal" to remedy the crisis, though he and Payne declined to elaborate.

The council members — who also included Luis A. Quintana, councilman-at-large, and Ras Baraka, Central Ward councilman — faulted the mayor for not holding town hall meetings on the MUA and rolled out their own schedule. They scheduled the first of five hearings for 6 p.m. Monday at West Side High School.

The council had already scheduled a special meeting for next Tuesday to take up the MUA issue, something it has deferred twice and might defer again since it has scheduled nightly public hearings through the month’s end. Just three days ago, Payne called the MUA proposal a "stopgap measure" that was not in the "best interests of the city."

Not so, Booker has argued. The MUA, he said, would save the city from even greater economic peril, namely hundreds of millions of dollars in long-neglected infrastructure repairs to Newark’s vast watershed holdings.

"The pipes are in ancient condition, and we don’t have the bonding capacity to fix them," the mayor said. "We need to access more revenue. The collateral benefit with a lease arrangement with the MUA would create a revenue stream pass our lifetime."

At today’s news conference, Crump was asked directly if she thought the mayor would follow through on implementing furloughs starting Sept. 27, closing the city’s pools on Aug. 2 and the city’s popular Watershed Camp in West Milford, as well as end spending on everything from "toilet paper to printer paper."

"My answer is, ‘Yes,’" said Crump, who then quipped: "Shop Rite has a sale on toilet paper. So, let’s go down and get it."